This plog is going to start very, very slowly, so my apologies to all you Privateer Press fans out there. I've got a heap of Iron Hands to do, and then even more Tyranids, plus a bunch of smaller commissions threaded in with them. However, whenever I have breath, I'll be putting in a few minutes work here and there on a Trollbloods army.

Here're the first three models assembled; from left to right: Pyre Troll, Hoarluk Doomshaper and Troll Bouncer:

Finally, I've cleared the decks enough that I can get started on this project. *These aren't the first PP models I've painted, but they are the first Hordes models I've done and they're definitely going to be the largest selection of PP models I've painted in one project.

There's lots and lots still to come but, to get us going, here's the WIP shot of the Bouncer:

The client asked for the blue skin/red nodules etc colour scheme, and also that the armour should have a weather-worn, slightly-rusted look. *Lots still to do, but it gives a good impression of where this project is going.

Incidentally, yes, I realize that the blue lump sticking out of his groin plate looks highly suspicious.

This is a bit of an experiment. The Impaler has lots of leather about his person, and I decided to paint all of it with Citadel Calthan Brown as a basecoat and then to see how much differentiation between types of leather I could achieve just using washes and contrasting highlights. The process is still in-hand, but I've started by using washes of Badab Black, Devlan Mud, Baal Red Ogryn Flesh and Leviathan Purple on different areas of brown.

That's two down. *Just 23 left to paint!* As the Bouncer had a trophy from another WM/H faction, I thought I'd repeat that theme on the Impaler, so he repaired his spear sheathe with a Cygnar banner.

R.

*Fortunately, most of those are at least half the size of this one, so if I start the scouts tomorrow, I should get two of them finished in a day, and when I get to the whelps, I'd hope to do five a day. *Having said that, I do have 24 termagants that need finishing off, too, so they may get priority tomorrow...

precinctomega

09-08-2011, 18:11

So, having spent most of the day painting 24 Termagants (finished 20), I literally had to take some time out to look at the Trollbloods just for the sake of my fragile sanity.

Got those termagants all done, and have now moved back to the Trollbloods while I wait for some Ninja Magic magnetic bases to arrive for a starships project I have going on (see above photos for hints).

I'm not quite as happy with this one as I have been with others. I think, once the first six scouts are done, I might have to go back to this one and look at it again. I think the flesh needs a little more care and attention around the red areas, and the metal tags on his poncho need some highlights.

The guy on the right is, of course, and identical model to the one I painted a few days ago, so I decided to do something a bit different and sought online inspiration. Can you guess who I based his colour scheme on?

R.

violenceha

15-08-2011, 15:10

Is it the dude from Assassin's creed?
The blue really looks amazing, I'm thinkng of grabbing a few trollbloods and having a go myself.

He's still WIP. There's a lot more to do, but I need to take a break from painting shades of brown, so I finished off his base and called him "done for now", while I get to move on to the more interesting Pyre Troll.

R.

*If it makes you feel better, you can tell yourself it's a pet.

precinctomega

01-09-2011, 16:41

Phew! It's been a seriously busy Summer chez Precinct Omega, but with a new foster child settling in happily, the kids back at school, a ludicrously enormous fleet of scratch-built starships (28 ships) finished and a host of new projects gathering on the horizon like ominous storm clouds, it's time I got cracking on the Trollbloods again.

It's not the only piece of work I have going right now, so I didn't get around to picking up the Pyre Troll until lunchtime, and put it down again just before going to collect the boys from school, so this is a good representation of three hours' work:

I don't mind admitting that I'm pretty solidly pleased with how this is turning out. The theme of red nodules on the trolls works really well on this model, on which I've added super-highlighting to make them look like glowing coals. I'm also really pleased with how the fire effects have turned out on his hands and out of his mouth. As well as finishing the flesh, I still have to add the rust effects to the metal plates and chains, and a little gentle object-source lighting around the flames on his hands and on his face and gut.

R.

Tzarinchilla

01-09-2011, 17:50

Wow these trolls are superb. That pyre troll is really coming along nicely.

I decided that the Whelps, lovely little walking foodstuffs that they are, deserved something special for their front arc designs, and figured that if they had to paint them themselves, the designs would be... pretty basic. Let me know what you think.

R.

precinctomega

05-09-2011, 16:25

Having nearly done three Whelps I got a bit bored and decided to put them to one side and crack on with the Runebearer. He's not quite finished (base notwithstanding) but the main bits that aren't done can't be seen from this angle.

Apologies for the poor focus, but it's only a WIP. I'll take much better photos when these are done.

The Runebearer's slabs illustrate the red marble effect I've decided to use not only on these but also on the rock outcrops on Mulg's back. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out but, once he's finished and the model is satin varnished, I'll also give them a coat of gloss varnish to really emphasize that shiny red marble look.

I'm pretty pleased with how he turned out. I think the red marble slabs don't 100% work with the model in a standalone capacity, but I think that, alongside the rest of the army, with their dominant blue/red scheme, he'll look just fine - especially when I've done Mulg in the same colour pattern.

Your painting skills are phenomenal. And what's all that about "starting slowly"? Seems like you're cracking right along to me! I love the lighting effects on the firebreather. And the runes on the whelps are a great, characterful touch. I look forward to more!

precinctomega

08-09-2011, 16:17

Thanks to interruptions from a certain young lodger in my home, progress today wasn't stellar, but I did get the Dire Troll Bomber finished:

I think I'm going to take some time off from the Trollbloods and put them aside until next Monday or Tuesday. I felt myself getting a bit burned out on blue and red while painting this one (that's a lot of blue flesh - it was a bit like sitting through a 24-hour Smurf porn marathon*), and tomorrow's an inset day so the kids are at home, so I'm not likely to paint much anyway.

But when I return, I've got six whelps, an axer, Rage of Dhunia, a slag troll and Mulg all built and prepped, but also an Earthborn, a Mauler and six scouts still to assemble and prime, so I think it'll be a day of assembly, putty, priming and airbrushing when I get back to these. Looking good to have them all done this month, though!

@benvoliothefirst - I had the army waiting to get started on for several weeks, assembled and primed half of them and then did nothing with them while I finished two or three other projects. That was the slow start.

R.

*I would imagine.

precinctomega

12-09-2011, 16:34

It's a Whelp. When you chop off a bit of a troll it often becomes a little troll (whelp) which is generally treated as an ambulatory snack until it's large enough to stop other trolls eating it.

Meanwhile, as mentioned, I took the weekend off to paint some other things (Infinity, mainly) and came back fresh to the Trollbloods this morning. Eschewing paint entirely (my desk was covered in pots so it took me a while to clear the decks and tidy them all back into my paint box), I decided to assemble and putty the remaining unassembled minis. So here they are:

I was very tempted to convert the scouts to get some variety in them away from the previous squad but, after dryfitting a few pieces, I decided that I wasn't really in the mood for the amount of sawing, pinning and sculpting that would have been necessary to make it work. Instead, I'll focus on making their paint scheme sufficiently different from the last one. For a start, these guys will all have their loincloths painted with the clan plaid illustrated on the Bomber and Runebearer - although I'm thinking of going back and adding that to the previous squad, too.

Meanwhile, I've also got to do two more of those hooded scouts. Having done Altair last time, I've been looking for ideas of other pop-culture figures with hoodies to rip off for these two. I've already had one excellent suggestion (Cypher, formerly of the Dark Angels chapter), but if anyone else can think of a good option, do let me know!

R.

Chris_Tzeentch

12-09-2011, 19:25

Lovin the Dire Troll bomber, and the flame effect on the Pyre Troll is superb. Keep it up!

dwarfhold13

12-09-2011, 22:16

what is your method for painting metal? it looks so simple but also so very nice!

Hushrong

12-09-2011, 22:40

The Trolls look great! I honestly never give them a second glance but yours are very eye catching!

I've tried to convey a sense of scavenged armour, with different colours on some parts of his protection: Khador red and Khador winter camo on his knees, Cryx green on his fist guards and there'll be Menoth cream on his gorget and Cygnar blue on a piece on his back.

Should be finished later today.

R.

mdiscala

22-09-2011, 14:24

Hey there sir. Great painting. I added you to the PP project log list in the PP section.

This guy's basically done except for his base rim and a few minor touch-ups here and there. Talking of "touch ups", I turned him upside down to access the back of his metal loincloth and I dropped the bloody thing in shock!

This model has a great, big, hairy scrotum dangling between his legs behind the rusty loincloth. You have been warned!

R.

JackDaw

30-09-2011, 16:28

Haha is it bad that a part of me wants to see the scrotum? Kudos to PP for being anatomically correct.

precinctomega

30-09-2011, 16:59

Having taken a second look, it seems that it's actually a chainmail jockstrap. Scrotum is present but what I took to be hairy turns out merely to be metal. Ouch.

R.

dwarfhold13

01-10-2011, 04:26

anatomically correct!?
you know, they say the bigger than hands......... the bigger the slag :D

now that that's said... i can't believe we are even going there. good looking slag!

I'm not 100% happy with the finish on the Mauler, so I'll probably give him another once over when I've finished the rest. *Tomorrow's target is to finish the bloody Whelps and that'll leave just Doomshaper, Mulg and the Earthborn to finish this week!

I'll be doing some more this evening, but the light has gone for more photos. Hopefully I'll finish this guy tonight and I can get Doomshaper done tomorrow to wrap this whole thing up. That said, there are a few snagging points I have to go over, checking back on the client's briefing - I've given a lot of them black pupils which they're apparently not supposed to have, despite the artwork that I checked against.

Also, I'm thinking of changing the glowing runes on the Runebearer to yellow rather than blue.

R.

precinctomega

10-10-2011, 17:17

Whee! Finished!

Sort of.

Here are the last images, but you'll notice that Doomshaper and Mulg show some shininess (shininess where they shouldn't, that it - the stuff on the back of Mulg is *supposed* to be shiny). This was a new batch of Citadel Washes and I've noticed that these have started to dry shiny in some cases and this is obviously one of those cases. I need to varnish the whole army, as it happens, so this should get sorted in the clear-up.

Then I'll go back and re-apply the gloss to Mulg's polished rocky bits.

edit: I was just going through the PP project logs but I didn't want to double post on yours, so this edit is a few days later. What I want to ask is: How did you do the crystal at the end of Doomshaper's staff?

precinctomega

17-03-2012, 17:06

IIRC - it was a while ago - I painted it Ice Blue and then gave it several focussed washes with very watered-down Skull White.

R.

Sparowl

20-03-2012, 13:17

Beautiful army. I really love the skin tones. Also, the hand/foot prints on the whelps' bases made me laugh. You'll excuse me if I steal that idea, right? :)

precinctomega

22-03-2012, 15:00

Be my guest. Just watch out. Those whelps like to draw some things they really shouldn't when you're not looking!

R.

DeffHeadDice

29-03-2012, 01:06

Very impressive. Did you use any of of the P3 metallics on these, and if so how much do you thin it?

precinctomega

28-05-2012, 12:54

Due to an overwhelming assault of L3 projects recently, I find myself forced to take up the brushes again, but at least it's doing something fun. *So here are some fresh additions to this Trollbloods army:

The one bad thing about the PP ranges is sometimes the limited number of sculpts within a unit group, but these Trollbloods are, at least, fun minis to paint. *These guys are the first three of a unit of Krielstone Scribes. *I'm trying to paint the least interesting models first, to reward myself for a job well done with the more entertaining jobs. *So the last three minis I'll be painting are the Krielstone Bearer, the Krielstone Scribe Elder and Rok, a character Dire Troll.

Big thumbs up, by the way, to Freelancer James who's doing some assembly/priming work for me and who did a top job of assembling and priming these.

Finished the other two with the same pose. I've got another two to finish who have a different pose, then I get to move on to the interesting stuff - the Krielstone Bearer, the Scribe Elder and, of course, Rok the Dire Troll.

I thought this model was finished but, as I was editing the pics, I noticed several areas that need more attention: his head spikes and the barrel on his belt being the first two that spring out. Oh, well.

For those wondering, I've asked the client if we could possibly have a picture of the entire army assembled on the tabletop.

R.

precinctomega

08-11-2012, 11:08

The client asked me to do all the bases with the freehand glyphs. Although, technically, this wasn't in the brief for miniatures at this sort of level, he's a regular client and a jolly nice bloke, so I agreed to do this without extra charge. So before I pack them all up, here's a group shot. Bear in mind that this is about one-third of the total miniatures painted for this army so far...